CinemaNerdz

Weekend Box-Office: Critics May Have Put the Bite on It, but Audiences Made Hotel Transylvania a Hit

Seth Paul

From director Genndy Tartakovsky and Adam Sandler comes…the highest grossing September release of all-time? Apparently so, as the critically panned CG comedy Hotel Transylvania defied its reviews and earned an estimated $43 million…not enough to top its $85 million budget, but a fine start to its theatrical run and more than surpassing the original high-grosser of September, Sweet Home Alabama, which made $35.6 million in 2002. It has certainly helped bolster a down box office, as has the critically acclaimed Looper, which landed the second spot with an estimated $21.2 million.

End of Watch remained a solid draw with an estimated $8 million, a small drop from last week’s gross, as did Trouble with the Curve (an estimated $7.5 million) and House at the End of the Street (an estimated $7.2 million). Pitch Perfect, the new musical comedy, opened to decent reviews and an estimated $5.2 million, putting it ahead of Finding Nemo 3D (an estimated $4.1 million) and Resident Evil: Retribution (an estimated $3 million). Pitch Perfect’s performance puts it in at a decent start with $17 million in costs to cover, while Finding Nemo’s $36.5 million is a relatively poor showing for a 3D re-release, especially for such a popular and well-regarded Pixar classic (for comparison, Star Wars – Episode I: The Phantom Menace made $43.5 million and was considered a lukewarm venture, and The Lion King made $94.2 million before that).

The Master is also in some trouble…while its limited opening weekend was the best start for a film by director Paul Thomas Anderson, its estimated $2.7 million earnings in its third weekend give it a running total of $9.6 million…well below the $35 million costs. In fact, The Master caps off a recent run of films that have received critical praise but not the ticket sales to match, such as ParaNorman (which has so far made $86 million worldwide…on an $80 million budget) and Dredd (which did not place in the Top 10 in its second week and has made $21 million worldwide and cost $50 million to make). However, the final film that did make the list, Won’t Back Down, is one of the few that does…in wide release, the film received a critical panning and only an estimated $2.7 million. At a $19 million budget, it has a much bigger battle percentage-wise to fight than The Master does.

Weekend Box-Office (September 28th – September 30th)

  1. Hotel Transylvania…$43 million
  2. Looper…$21.2 million
  3. End of Watch…$8 million
  4. Trouble with the Curve…$7.5 million
  5. House at the End of the Street…$7.2 million
  6. Pitch Perfect…$5.2 million
  7. Finding Nemo 3D…$4.1 million
  8. Resident Evil: Retribution…$3 million
  9. The Master…$2.7 million
  10. Won’t Back Down…$2.7 million

Seth Paul

When not failing to write novels and screenplays, box-office guru Seth writes humorous comedy tracks for films under the name "The One Man Band" that can be found at Rifftrax.com. Although, he has recently succeeded in writing the novella "Jack Alan and the Case of the Not-Exactly Rocket Scientists," available as an eBook on Amazon. He is also the English voice of Zak in "Zak McKracken: Between Time and Space."
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